Less than 60 Days to 2017 BC Election

This past Thursday (March 9th) was 60 days exactly until BC Voters' go to General Polling Day on May 9th to vote in 87 MLA's for the 41st Parliament of British Columbia

Today (March 14th) is Day 55 to the 41st General Election of British Columbia

MLA Candidates in both Cariboo-Chilcotin/Cariboo-North for the 2017 BC Election have not changed as of today:

Cariboo-North: Coralee Oakes (BC Liberals) vs Scott Elliott (BC NDP)

Cariboo-Chilcotin: Donna Barnett (BC Liberals) vs Sally Watson (BC NDP) vs Rita Giesbrecht (BC Greens)

Although there has not been an official media announcement (that I'm aware of), tomorrow night at the Quesnel School District Board of Education Meeting, SD28 Board Vice-Chair Tony Goulet will inform his colleagues that he is running in Cariboo-North under the BC Conservative Party banner - read here

Interest of note in Cariboo-Chilcotin -- Ms. Giesbrecht has been holding 'meet/greet' with Cariboo-Chilcotin voters' at the Bean Counter Bistro in Williams Lake, every Tuesday, although once the election is formally called in mid-April, I suspect that there will be All Candidates Forums in both Cariboo-North/Cariboo-Chilcotin (Quesnel, Williams Lake, 100 Mile House) in the months of mid/late April and early to mid May 2017 to let the voting public hear from the candidates

Elections BC, the non-partisan provincial body, that runs BC General Elections and provincial referenda, says that the deadline to file a candidate nomination with them is 1pm on Tuesday, April 18th with the election writ be filed on Tuesday, April 11th after the Premier visits Her Honour, the Lieutenant-Governor (Hon. Judith Guichon) requesting Her Honour to dissolve the 40th Parliament of British Columbia for a 28 day election campaign.

Unless things change rapidly between now (March 14th) to April 18th - there won't be an independent MLA Candidate in either Cariboo-North or Cariboo-Chilcotin, given Gary Young, who ran as an independent MLA candidate in the 2013 BC Election, has not yet publicly confirmed if he will run again while in Cariboo-North, Bob Simpson, currently the Mayor of Quesnel/Vice-Chair of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Regional Hospital District Board and who ran as an independent MLA Candidate in the 2013 BC Election, recently confirmed to CBC News (click here) that he will not be participating in the 2017 BC Election (as I long suspected would occur)

Finally - Éric Grenier from ThreeHundredEight.com, a website dedicated to political polling in Canada and a regular contributor to various media writes on the question on polling, its' accuracy with recent elections and the current state of the BC Electorate as we get to May 9th, 2017.  Read here

~SF